Coyote; aka my 96 D1 5 speed build thread
- Thread starter Ray_G
- Start date
Ray_G
Explorer
Couple of final shots to round out the weekend provided later. Kinetic rope rigged up
& in action. The beauty of pulling out a Jeep really is unfair since the owner was a novice who was there to learn how the vehicle performed and did nothing wrong; can't change factory ground clearance and was going through in a very controlled manner till he ended up high centered on some mud and without momentum was going nowhere. Maxtrax can't change ground clearance (without a lot of digging in some nasty mud) so the easiest thing to do was run the rope.
All told a beautiful couple of days even with some storms and a lot of fun playing with some recovery gear but that's for another time.
& in action. The beauty of pulling out a Jeep really is unfair since the owner was a novice who was there to learn how the vehicle performed and did nothing wrong; can't change factory ground clearance and was going through in a very controlled manner till he ended up high centered on some mud and without momentum was going nowhere. Maxtrax can't change ground clearance (without a lot of digging in some nasty mud) so the easiest thing to do was run the rope.
All told a beautiful couple of days even with some storms and a lot of fun playing with some recovery gear but that's for another time.
Ray_G
Explorer
Fridge 'tech'
So the Ironman/Endel B/whatever fridge that we took to the UAE came back in the express shipment and as I prepped Coyote before last weekend to come to WV I decided it was time to put her back in. Take note; sending the fridge back; good. Forgetting to send back the cords for either AC or DC power; not good.
Discovering that the 110v power cord is the same plug as on your computer monitor; very good! (and also helpful that Amazon prime can ship you one for $8 that gets your monitor back in the fight in two days).
I decided to put the fridge back in on the 40 side of the rear seat 60/40 split, using the setup that we'd kept in storage since the VOT. Normally I'd put it on the tilting slide in the back but this placement is much more user friendly day to day and with her currently only carrying 3 pax vice 4 until the wife gets done running around abroad it was the better choice. Setup back in:
I could have ordered a new 12v power cord from truckfridge but I procrastinated and by the time I decided I needed to do it the item would not have arrived in time for the weekend. After scouring my stuff to find a substitute I finally decided that I would investigate the fridge's wiring and see if I could bypass their plug with an SAE connector. Thankfully the plastic panel was easy to remove and the wiring was rather simple...so simple I didn't take a pic of the external SAE connector but everyone knows what they look like:
When she sits in the garage or other places with easy access to house power I prefer to run the fridge off the 110, to ease that and allow locking doors I routed an extension cord to the outside via the rear of the truck:
As she sits installed, quite nice not just for on the road but also while at home is essentially doubling as a beer fridge for the garage too.
So the Ironman/Endel B/whatever fridge that we took to the UAE came back in the express shipment and as I prepped Coyote before last weekend to come to WV I decided it was time to put her back in. Take note; sending the fridge back; good. Forgetting to send back the cords for either AC or DC power; not good.
Discovering that the 110v power cord is the same plug as on your computer monitor; very good! (and also helpful that Amazon prime can ship you one for $8 that gets your monitor back in the fight in two days).
I decided to put the fridge back in on the 40 side of the rear seat 60/40 split, using the setup that we'd kept in storage since the VOT. Normally I'd put it on the tilting slide in the back but this placement is much more user friendly day to day and with her currently only carrying 3 pax vice 4 until the wife gets done running around abroad it was the better choice. Setup back in:
I could have ordered a new 12v power cord from truckfridge but I procrastinated and by the time I decided I needed to do it the item would not have arrived in time for the weekend. After scouring my stuff to find a substitute I finally decided that I would investigate the fridge's wiring and see if I could bypass their plug with an SAE connector. Thankfully the plastic panel was easy to remove and the wiring was rather simple...so simple I didn't take a pic of the external SAE connector but everyone knows what they look like:
When she sits in the garage or other places with easy access to house power I prefer to run the fridge off the 110, to ease that and allow locking doors I routed an extension cord to the outside via the rear of the truck:
As she sits installed, quite nice not just for on the road but also while at home is essentially doubling as a beer fridge for the garage too.
Ray_G
Explorer
2016 ROAV Mid Atlantic Rally, Pt 1
Posting some pics here that I'd already thrown onto the book of faces. Decided to give Coyote the workout instead of the D3 since she deserves love (and is far more built for this sort of thing). A great event in a beautiful location. The best part is coming back to the US and seeing old friends, meeting new ones-especially forum members, cooking some great food and even doing a little bit of wheeling. Doing it with just me and the youngest was a good way to spend some quality time with her to re-invest after the past few years of not getting as much as I'd have liked. So anyway, the pics.
Truck was loaded up mostly internally other than the 2 1600's on the roof that held the ground tent(s) and the volcano stove (+). Ironically just because it was only two of us that seemed to mean we packed more! Much of that was the footprint of the double tent cot, and in particular the double tent cot mattress. All told the truck was well sorted and the 255/85 KM2's with 4.11 gearing did extremely well on the highway to/from, holding at about 70-75 but for hill climbs that the 4.0 just isn't going to hold at speed.
After all the rain, there was mud. Lots of mud, mostly at Rally Control. Thankfully just putting her in 4 low, locked and letting the tires do their thing made it no real challenge and more like just an entertaining spin.
Camp was setup fairly quickly between me and the youngest-while the tent cot is absurd, it is rather comfortable!
Coyote links up with her VOT comrade, Clifford (the big red dog...though in fairness Clifford has been a workhorse for John the owner/operator of Twin Mtn)
Always good to see these out in the wild being used as intended; ironically later on a trail ride after going through a small obstacle the owner looked at me and said "should I have used the terrain response or something?" "You were just in 'drive?' "yep" "Nah man, just keep doing your thing..." Very capable trucks, especially with the right shoes on.
Dinner night 1...pork carnitas.
Izzy contemplates life after her seventeenth smore.
Incredible views and great weather!
Posting some pics here that I'd already thrown onto the book of faces. Decided to give Coyote the workout instead of the D3 since she deserves love (and is far more built for this sort of thing). A great event in a beautiful location. The best part is coming back to the US and seeing old friends, meeting new ones-especially forum members, cooking some great food and even doing a little bit of wheeling. Doing it with just me and the youngest was a good way to spend some quality time with her to re-invest after the past few years of not getting as much as I'd have liked. So anyway, the pics.
Truck was loaded up mostly internally other than the 2 1600's on the roof that held the ground tent(s) and the volcano stove (+). Ironically just because it was only two of us that seemed to mean we packed more! Much of that was the footprint of the double tent cot, and in particular the double tent cot mattress. All told the truck was well sorted and the 255/85 KM2's with 4.11 gearing did extremely well on the highway to/from, holding at about 70-75 but for hill climbs that the 4.0 just isn't going to hold at speed.
After all the rain, there was mud. Lots of mud, mostly at Rally Control. Thankfully just putting her in 4 low, locked and letting the tires do their thing made it no real challenge and more like just an entertaining spin.
Camp was setup fairly quickly between me and the youngest-while the tent cot is absurd, it is rather comfortable!
Coyote links up with her VOT comrade, Clifford (the big red dog...though in fairness Clifford has been a workhorse for John the owner/operator of Twin Mtn)
Always good to see these out in the wild being used as intended; ironically later on a trail ride after going through a small obstacle the owner looked at me and said "should I have used the terrain response or something?" "You were just in 'drive?' "yep" "Nah man, just keep doing your thing..." Very capable trucks, especially with the right shoes on.
Dinner night 1...pork carnitas.
Izzy contemplates life after her seventeenth smore.
Incredible views and great weather!
Ray_G
Explorer
2016 ROAV Mid Atlantic Rally, Pt II
Since that was the end of day 1/beginning of day 2 it seemed like the appropriate transition point to Pt II.
The tools of the morning trade going into play; French Press is invaluable even if I don't really drink coffee-as morale is tied to it. My normal am drink of choice is also on the table.
Ever since the trip to WI last summer when I took a look through the kiddos bags, and found a table mirror (this table mirror in fact) this has been both a joke and a bit of a dare for her to include in her pack outs. In this case since it was just the two of us I wasn't going to argue too much-and in the end I will admit that a table mirror did help with putting contacts in for the day.
It of course also resulted in stuff like this, which our friend Tracey noted also seemed odd since shortly after the haircombing started a pack of boys showed up at the camp to see if they could pet the dogs. Coincidence I suppose.
On to more substantive matters. The volcano II is an excellent little stove, and before MAR I grabbed the griddle for it-which is fantastic for bacon. Less fantastic for eggs when you realize that the stove/griddle isn't quite level so your egg runs off the side of the stove but that was a small matter, as we had bacon.
We are going to have to work on the pictures while wheeling. She was out of the truck watching but it at least did turn into a good chance to discuss how to step back to get more of a scene in perspective. A good shot of the fact that my truck is a 5 speed and that at times I shift when necessary...
A slightly better picture. All told the suspension seems rather dialed in now after playing around with springs, shocks, spring isolators, bump stops, etc.
Not sure this is going to buff out.
What its all about, good people having a great time.
As we packed up the next am it is worth highlight the value of the trasharoo on so many fronts. Not only is it great for its intended purpose of hauling trash, it works great for carrying firewood/charcoal, I use it on the trail for recovery gear, and in this case rather than put all the wet rain fly's and ground sheets away we just stuffed all of them in here to be sorted out once we got home.
While it was unfortunate the older sister couldn't come (she opted out due to not wanting to miss a day of school since she's finding high school to have a bit more intensity than middle school), it was great in a sense to just be able to focus on the younger individually. A lot of laughing and quality time that is irreplaceable.
Truck made it home without fault, got fully cleaned up externally a few days later and I still owe her a decent cleaning. Other things about the trip worth noting include the chance to use the microstart, which hadn't been charged since I bought it and put it in the truck a few months back. Clifford's battery died overnight so we decided to try the microstart before going to jumper cables. Fired it right up. Seriously good piece of gear. No major negative pieces of feedback on the truck, it continues to work as intended when built. I still flirt with the idea of air lockers but am not sold that I really want, or need, them for my application. Beyond that, she'll continue to have her place in the garage as the senior truck with the well earned spot.
Since that was the end of day 1/beginning of day 2 it seemed like the appropriate transition point to Pt II.
The tools of the morning trade going into play; French Press is invaluable even if I don't really drink coffee-as morale is tied to it. My normal am drink of choice is also on the table.
Ever since the trip to WI last summer when I took a look through the kiddos bags, and found a table mirror (this table mirror in fact) this has been both a joke and a bit of a dare for her to include in her pack outs. In this case since it was just the two of us I wasn't going to argue too much-and in the end I will admit that a table mirror did help with putting contacts in for the day.
It of course also resulted in stuff like this, which our friend Tracey noted also seemed odd since shortly after the haircombing started a pack of boys showed up at the camp to see if they could pet the dogs. Coincidence I suppose.
On to more substantive matters. The volcano II is an excellent little stove, and before MAR I grabbed the griddle for it-which is fantastic for bacon. Less fantastic for eggs when you realize that the stove/griddle isn't quite level so your egg runs off the side of the stove but that was a small matter, as we had bacon.
We are going to have to work on the pictures while wheeling. She was out of the truck watching but it at least did turn into a good chance to discuss how to step back to get more of a scene in perspective. A good shot of the fact that my truck is a 5 speed and that at times I shift when necessary...
A slightly better picture. All told the suspension seems rather dialed in now after playing around with springs, shocks, spring isolators, bump stops, etc.
Not sure this is going to buff out.
What its all about, good people having a great time.
As we packed up the next am it is worth highlight the value of the trasharoo on so many fronts. Not only is it great for its intended purpose of hauling trash, it works great for carrying firewood/charcoal, I use it on the trail for recovery gear, and in this case rather than put all the wet rain fly's and ground sheets away we just stuffed all of them in here to be sorted out once we got home.
While it was unfortunate the older sister couldn't come (she opted out due to not wanting to miss a day of school since she's finding high school to have a bit more intensity than middle school), it was great in a sense to just be able to focus on the younger individually. A lot of laughing and quality time that is irreplaceable.
Truck made it home without fault, got fully cleaned up externally a few days later and I still owe her a decent cleaning. Other things about the trip worth noting include the chance to use the microstart, which hadn't been charged since I bought it and put it in the truck a few months back. Clifford's battery died overnight so we decided to try the microstart before going to jumper cables. Fired it right up. Seriously good piece of gear. No major negative pieces of feedback on the truck, it continues to work as intended when built. I still flirt with the idea of air lockers but am not sold that I really want, or need, them for my application. Beyond that, she'll continue to have her place in the garage as the senior truck with the well earned spot.
pdXDisco
Observer
Man, I read your updates with a mix of admiration and envy. Your disco is a great example of what these trucks can be. And another week (month?) has gone by and none of my planned upgrades/fixes are done (except for my light flicker, boom!). Life, work, budget, all just excuses, but I can't wait to get mine past the restoration phase, and onto the build up!
Nicely done.
Nicely done.
Ray_G
Explorer
VHF swap out, dog guard update, etc
Coyote's role as more off road toy than DD makes her suceptible to cannibalization of components I'd installed at the beginning of the build to keep her interior less clustered; i.e. in this case specifically the detaching face Yaseu FT-7900R. That radio will get put in the D3 in a few weeks but in the interim I needed to get it out of the D1 and used it as an 'opportunity' to try out a cheap unit off Amazon: QYT KT8900. I was intrigued by its small size, and figured at that price point if it gets me into a vehicle mounted unit for using on the mountain across the VHF/UHF freq band (including the potential for GMRS since Twin Mtn has a lic for that now) primarily on simplex it was worth a shot. Opted to mount the unit directly on the dash, which is now getting cluttered with the GPS cradle, the phone holder, and the radio but since she's much more of a dedicated play toy I'm not sweating it. Initial testing found the sound quality to be excellent and the position of the handset makes an external speaker unnecessary.
Power wires run across tucked in the front dash to the passenger side and back to a constant 12v SAE connection under the passenger seat (which is where the CB now lives too). Antenna wire runs across the dash to the driver's side, up through a grommet in the firewall into the engine bay and then out of the hood up along the snorkel to the roof.
I pulled the diamond antenna off to use on the D3 as well and thus am trying out this smaller, much more flexible, antenna to test performance given intended usage (simplex, on the mountain, relatively short ranges). While only 15.5" tall, the flexibility and lower profile will come in handy on the trail where historically I'd kept the diamond lowered. The motorized mount stayed on Coyote, the D3's has been procured since that's a good piece of gear. Ant link, illustrative of the wide range of cheap chinese HAM stuff that is mixed quality but I've been more impressed thus far than dissappointed: SPPQ Ant
The dog guard I'd put in years ago that was configured for a full back row of seats (and for the fridge to be in its tilting slide all the way in the back) didn't really work all that well for the current truck configuration where the fridge occupies the 40 seat section; there was a gaping hole and thus I'd removed the guard entirely. I decided I wanted the protection and such back in the truck and thus used some wire mesh panels I'd scavenged off a plumbing van at the local pick & pull to make a lower panel that joined the dog guard with the bottom of the cargo shelf.
I then used that new found space to put in some of the pouches that were on the back of my seat (micro start & winch controller) since those were in the way of easy access to the fridge opening latch. Likewise I moved two of the pouches that had been on the center of the dog guard down lower (FRS radios & spare batteries; handiwipes/TP, bug spray, etc). This moves as many obstructions as possible out of the way of seeing through the back window and gives a little space back to whomever is riding in the 60 section. It also makes me bask in the irony that I have all this MOLLE webbing on my Kexby (Knightsbridge now) seat covers...and use wire mesh to mount pouches. The nature of things I suppose.
If nothing else now I've got full coverage across the back to keep stuff from smashing into my face.
This update ignores the 30 other little things that required attention to just get a radio out and such, but the upside to the time spent over the past few days is the opportunity to lay hands on the truck and get a sense for where she is fitness wise. If we ever see heavy (by VA standards) snow here she'll get into action this winter, likely also with occassional trip to WV while we await the spring wheeling season.
r-
Ray
Coyote's role as more off road toy than DD makes her suceptible to cannibalization of components I'd installed at the beginning of the build to keep her interior less clustered; i.e. in this case specifically the detaching face Yaseu FT-7900R. That radio will get put in the D3 in a few weeks but in the interim I needed to get it out of the D1 and used it as an 'opportunity' to try out a cheap unit off Amazon: QYT KT8900. I was intrigued by its small size, and figured at that price point if it gets me into a vehicle mounted unit for using on the mountain across the VHF/UHF freq band (including the potential for GMRS since Twin Mtn has a lic for that now) primarily on simplex it was worth a shot. Opted to mount the unit directly on the dash, which is now getting cluttered with the GPS cradle, the phone holder, and the radio but since she's much more of a dedicated play toy I'm not sweating it. Initial testing found the sound quality to be excellent and the position of the handset makes an external speaker unnecessary.
Power wires run across tucked in the front dash to the passenger side and back to a constant 12v SAE connection under the passenger seat (which is where the CB now lives too). Antenna wire runs across the dash to the driver's side, up through a grommet in the firewall into the engine bay and then out of the hood up along the snorkel to the roof.
I pulled the diamond antenna off to use on the D3 as well and thus am trying out this smaller, much more flexible, antenna to test performance given intended usage (simplex, on the mountain, relatively short ranges). While only 15.5" tall, the flexibility and lower profile will come in handy on the trail where historically I'd kept the diamond lowered. The motorized mount stayed on Coyote, the D3's has been procured since that's a good piece of gear. Ant link, illustrative of the wide range of cheap chinese HAM stuff that is mixed quality but I've been more impressed thus far than dissappointed: SPPQ Ant
The dog guard I'd put in years ago that was configured for a full back row of seats (and for the fridge to be in its tilting slide all the way in the back) didn't really work all that well for the current truck configuration where the fridge occupies the 40 seat section; there was a gaping hole and thus I'd removed the guard entirely. I decided I wanted the protection and such back in the truck and thus used some wire mesh panels I'd scavenged off a plumbing van at the local pick & pull to make a lower panel that joined the dog guard with the bottom of the cargo shelf.
I then used that new found space to put in some of the pouches that were on the back of my seat (micro start & winch controller) since those were in the way of easy access to the fridge opening latch. Likewise I moved two of the pouches that had been on the center of the dog guard down lower (FRS radios & spare batteries; handiwipes/TP, bug spray, etc). This moves as many obstructions as possible out of the way of seeing through the back window and gives a little space back to whomever is riding in the 60 section. It also makes me bask in the irony that I have all this MOLLE webbing on my Kexby (Knightsbridge now) seat covers...and use wire mesh to mount pouches. The nature of things I suppose.
If nothing else now I've got full coverage across the back to keep stuff from smashing into my face.
This update ignores the 30 other little things that required attention to just get a radio out and such, but the upside to the time spent over the past few days is the opportunity to lay hands on the truck and get a sense for where she is fitness wise. If we ever see heavy (by VA standards) snow here she'll get into action this winter, likely also with occassional trip to WV while we await the spring wheeling season.
r-
Ray
Ray_G
Explorer
Oh those stupid little 'city lights' in the main head light? I swear every year one of those goes out before va safety inspection. Like clockwork.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Ray_G
Explorer
Just a couple of shots from a few weeks back when it snowed. Needed some more pellets for the stove, decided that Coyote was the optimal vehicle for the conditions (who am I kidding, a miata would have been fine-I just wanted to drive her)
Oh, and a city light is out in one of my headlights now. I blame this thread.
r-
Ray
Oh, and a city light is out in one of my headlights now. I blame this thread.
r-
Ray
Ray_G
Explorer
The time since the last update to this thread alone is illustrative that I have not been good to my girl-and for a time she took it out on me, but recently I decided 2018 Coyote would get some love-and some abuse out on the trails.
So I set out to get her running good, to return all the cannibalized recovery gear, radios, and other items, and set the ROAV Rovers at Wintergreen as my date to take her back out. I was impressed that I got all our stuff (by 'our' I mean me + wife & 16yr old daughter & 11 year old daughter...so really I mean three women...into the back, with the fridge back there too.
The event itself is one of the more enjoyable 'little' (~80 trucks this year) events, and it comes at a good time. Typical VA spring. 70 degrees on Fri. Snow/sleet on Sat as we went through the ski resort to hit the trails.
We went out on the intermediate trails, which on this terrain has some decent challenges-but by and large the truck did great.
This one is worth sharing the full size; several of the LR3's on the trail dealt well with the degrading conditions but MT's really go a long way (so does being 'light' (a very relative thing by Rover standards). Jesse didn't do anything wrong...but we still ended up needing multiple snatch blocks and I know it was rather uncomfortable for him till the truck got back onto the trail.
We did take a little tap after our spotter told us we were good getting past a boulder. We weren't good.
Back at the resort, reinflating better half is reinflating tires while I take pics.
So we buy raffle tickets, I give them to the kids to manage (so I can drink beer and heckle). The youngest ends up winning us an LSD that Sarek automotive ponied up. Talk about awesome!
To put at least some modicum of tech in here, I recently grabbed a lightly used Midland MXT105 that I put in-what is gratifying is to see more and more in the rides switching to GMRS vice CB, so vehicle mounted units like this are really coming into their own. Very much looking forward to the MX275 for the LR3, but for the more function vice form D1, this works good.
Now back, Coyote will get a little troubleshooting down with some stalling-I'm thinking it is the FPR, the fuel filter, or the fuel pump. Couple that with the need to fix the powertank regulator that the idiot who last refilled it for me broke and some onboard air compressor issues and I now have a list going-but at 137k, she's running strong and wheeling well.
r-
Ray
So I set out to get her running good, to return all the cannibalized recovery gear, radios, and other items, and set the ROAV Rovers at Wintergreen as my date to take her back out. I was impressed that I got all our stuff (by 'our' I mean me + wife & 16yr old daughter & 11 year old daughter...so really I mean three women...into the back, with the fridge back there too.
The event itself is one of the more enjoyable 'little' (~80 trucks this year) events, and it comes at a good time. Typical VA spring. 70 degrees on Fri. Snow/sleet on Sat as we went through the ski resort to hit the trails.
We went out on the intermediate trails, which on this terrain has some decent challenges-but by and large the truck did great.
This one is worth sharing the full size; several of the LR3's on the trail dealt well with the degrading conditions but MT's really go a long way (so does being 'light' (a very relative thing by Rover standards). Jesse didn't do anything wrong...but we still ended up needing multiple snatch blocks and I know it was rather uncomfortable for him till the truck got back onto the trail.
We did take a little tap after our spotter told us we were good getting past a boulder. We weren't good.
Back at the resort, reinflating better half is reinflating tires while I take pics.
So we buy raffle tickets, I give them to the kids to manage (so I can drink beer and heckle). The youngest ends up winning us an LSD that Sarek automotive ponied up. Talk about awesome!
To put at least some modicum of tech in here, I recently grabbed a lightly used Midland MXT105 that I put in-what is gratifying is to see more and more in the rides switching to GMRS vice CB, so vehicle mounted units like this are really coming into their own. Very much looking forward to the MX275 for the LR3, but for the more function vice form D1, this works good.
Now back, Coyote will get a little troubleshooting down with some stalling-I'm thinking it is the FPR, the fuel filter, or the fuel pump. Couple that with the need to fix the powertank regulator that the idiot who last refilled it for me broke and some onboard air compressor issues and I now have a list going-but at 137k, she's running strong and wheeling well.
r-
Ray
